Our jolly old forbears did not have
the fair sailing they had reason to anticipate in Ulster. There were
elements of disturbance at work for which they were unconsciously
responsible, at least in part, that were destined to bring upon them dire
disaster. There had been mistakes made and wrongs done, and a storm of
retribution was gathering force in the mountains to overwhelm them.

The Irish Catholics very naturally
looked upon them as intruders who had taken the place of their banished
countrymen, and had wrongfully seized and appropriated their rightful
possessions, and moreover they were of another faith, and had cooperated,
or at least concurred in the English persecution of the Irish Catholics,
which was stern, inveterate and brutal. It was not in human nature,
especially in the Irish nature, to tamely submit to these oppressions, and
it was especially aggravating to see men of their own race eager
beneficiaries of Ireland’s wrongs.

It mattered not that by their
industry and thrift they had brought wealth and prosperity and made the
wilderness blossom like the rose; were they not in alliance with the
oppressor, a foreign race that from the dawn of history had pursued them
to rob and despoil? It is not to be
wondered at that animosities were engendered that boded no good.

There is no doubt that the trustful Scot, relying on
the protection of the English, gave scope to his covetous nature and
acquisitive instincts to gather spoils from the prostrate nation while he
sang songs of pure content and rubbed his hoary hands in glee over his
great gains.

But while he was thus wrapped up in self-righteous
glorification the Clans were gathering in the dark places and hidden
recesses of the hills. The fiery Princes of the ancient realm were
aligning their forces for bloody reprisals. The edict had gone forth that
the apostate Celt who was growing fat on the blood of his kin must no
longer pollute the soil of the Emerald Isle.

In A. D. 1641, just a generation after the
advent of the Scot Phelim, Roe O'Neill, at the head of the Irish Clans
made a descent on Ulster and laid waste the province. Forty thousand
innocent people were slain by the raiders and a human life exacted for
every one driven out with Tyrone and Tyrconnel. With sword and torch the
land was desolated and the survivors driven into the caves of the earth to
escape destruction. The self-righteous Scot found himself confronted by a
bloody problem not included in his reckoning when he left his rock-ribbed
home to build a fortune on the usurped lands of his brother Celt.

To say that his resistance was heroic is to speak of it
lightly. All history attests the intrepidity and desperate valor with
which the Scot will defend his fireside ; and his persistence in the
unequal contest alone saved Ulster from extirpation. The great pity of it
was that it was Celt warring with Celt; men of the finest blood on earth
destroying each other.

Cromwell at last came to the rescue and drove back the
invader with the mailed hand, and Ulster was saved to civilization. The
Scot had learned a lesson, but he yet had more to learn.

Nothing in history better illustrates the persistency
of the race than the rehabilitation of the waste places depopulated by
O'Neill. The mills were rebuilt; the machinery restored; dwellings
erected; church spires pointed heavenward, and the school bells again rang
out joyfully, inviting the youth of the land to higher ideals and the
better life. For another generation they had comparative peace and
consequently the prosperity that always attends industry and thrift, and
the winds wafted their sails to every known sea. But it must be remembered
that Ulster was not exclusively a Scotch colony, a large proportion,
nearly one-half, being English. The Presbyterian and Anglican churches
stood side by side and the two branches of the Protestant faith seemingly
dwelt together in harmony, at least as long as it was necessary to combine
their forces to combat the Catholics, but the Anglican was the Church of
State, claiming ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all others, and was a
component part of the civil government of the realm, and her decisions and
decrees would be enforced by the power of King and Parliament. But it was
not always good state policy to rigidly exercise these extraordinary
functions. 'Tis true they were enforced with great malignancy against the
Irish, but as to the Scotch Irish they were held in suspension, only
awaiting the opportunity to safely assert their assumed prerogatives. The
Church of England was already showing her teeth and making faces at the
Presbyterians, and unrest prevailed. Long-headed Scots foresaw the
impending trouble, and while they could yet do so, disposed
of their interests and sailed for America and a considerable tide of
emigration set in toward our shores.

Events, however, were transpiring that rendered the
tenure of the Scot in Ireland insecure and unpleasant. Great changes were
taking place in England. A wonderful religious revival was in progress in
which the Catholic, Anglican, Puritan and Presbyterian Covenanters all
took part, each striving "tooth and toe nail" to root out the heresies of
the other. Old King "James the Fool" had gone to his long home (1625) and
was succeeded by Charles I., who lost his head in the mixup. Then came
eleven years of the Commonwealth in which Oliver Cromwell proved himself
the greatest man of the age; but at his death the Puritan, notwithstanding
his vantage ground, was found incapable and retired from the contest. Then
came "Charley from over the water," Charles II., who signalized his
restoration by restoring the established church, expelling from their
pulpits two thousand clergymen for non-conformity. It was here where the
Church of England had her innings in the religious fervor of the times.

Charles II. believed in the divine right of Kings,
aimed to rule without a Parliament and accepted bribes from foreign
potentates, but he never attempted to change the religion of England. He
was succeeded by James II., who soon showed that he had but one aim-to
restore Catholicism. "The boot was now on the other foot," and the
belabored Irish, who had been beaten down to the earth, came blithely to
the front, seething with aggressive venom for the wrongs they had
suffered. The religious political cauldron no longer simmered but boiled
and bubbled with scalding heat, and our trustful Scot, in a foreign land,
deprived of the protection of his own, found himself "between the devil

and the deep sea." England, however, was patient for
a time, but it was asking too much for her to long submit to the radical
changes and gross usurpations of this unseasoned monarch. In A. D. 1688 he
was driven out of England and found refuge in France under the protection
of Louis XIV.

Parliament considered James' desertion an abdication
and declared the throne vacant. William, Prince of Orange, had married
Mary, the daughter of James, and, being thus in the line of promotion and
both radically Protestant, they were invited jointly to occupy the vacant
throne.

William was a good-natured, decent sort of Dutchman,
and, being of course imbued with the germanic instinct for taking things,
especially when they came easy, accepted, and the thing was done ; and
they were proclaimed "William and Mary, King and Queen of England."

These changes and transformations somewhat allayed the
fears of our friends in Ulster, and there was not so much brine in their
penitential tears as when they were bending to the yoke of James with
forebodings of cruel extinction. Their own offense of being particeps
criminis in the spoliation of the Irish diminished in magnitude as the
chances for reprisals declined, and they wept not so long or so loud, but
their day of retribution was yet to come, not by the hand of their
wretched brother Celts, by whose misfortunes they had profited, but from
their abiding hereditary enemy, the English Teuton, to whom they had
basely cringed for gain and became partakers in wrong.

James II. had ignobly fled without striking a blow for
his cause, relying on his patron, Louis XIV, of France, to regain his
crown. Louis was a powerful monarch, but his combinations had excited the
jealousy of the European powers, Catholic as well as Protestant, and he
had troubles of his own to look after, while the well known rashness and
treachery of James did not commend him to the Catholic powers as a
suitable champion of their cause. He had, however, one source of
strength-one favorable point from which to operate-and that was Ireland.
He had made himself strong with the Irish, who outside of Ulster were
mostly Catholics. The Protestants had been disarmed and rooted out of
every position of authority, even in Ulster, just as the Catholics had
been under Protestant rule, and they, the Irish, now rallied to the
support of James.

To a disinterested observer it is difficult to see what
else they could do. It is true that James was not of their blood, and
their confidence in him was not as great as it would have been in a native
Prince, aiming at Irish nationality, but loyalty to Church and State
stimulated them to hoist his standard and prepare for the struggle that
must ensue.

James' program was to land in Ireland with a force
furnished by the French King, and there unite with the Irish army that had
been assembled by the Lord Deputy, cross from the North of Ireland into
Scotland, and there effect a junction with the Jacobin Highlanders under
Dundee, and from thence make a descent into England, regain the crown,
destroy the Protestants and have a good time generally.

The plan was well laid-looked feasible-and under the
leadership of such men as Grant, Sherman or Sheridan would have succeeded.
But there was one obstacle in the way and that was Ulster. Badly armed and
equipped, Ulster, unprotected by British force, unprovided in every way,
unused to the arts of war did not seem a formidable obstacle, but it
proved otherwise.

But, as the Irish had limited confidence in James, so,
the wiser heads among the Scots did not altogether trust in the integrity
of the German Prince; and coming events proved that their distrust was
well founded. Pending the arrival of James in Dublin, the Lord Deputy used
all the arts of diplomacy to induce the me Ulster to surrender their arms
and submit, promising every immunity that could be asked; but the men of
Ulster, knowing the treacherous nature of Tyrconnel, would not give up
their only means of defense, and with this refusal war was inevitable.

The negotiations on the part of our people were mostly
conducted by the preachers, who held meetings in every country town and
passed resolutions, while active preparations for their subjugation were
being vigorously pushed in Dublin. The preachers were yet in session and
had taken no practical measures for defense, when Lieut. Gen. Hamilton, a
Catholic nobleman, at the head of a considerable force, arrived in Ulster.
Taken by surprise many of the inhabitants surrendered their arms and took
the oath of allegiance to James and consented to being plundered and
robbed on promise that their lives should be spared. But a great majority
of the people fled to the fortified towns, destroying such property as
they could not carry away. The Scotch Irish character that had been in
course of development for a hundred years, began here to assert itself in
deeds of heroism that challenged the admiration of mankind.

Our friends had no time to concentrate, and the small
garrison towns fell into the hands of the enemy. They were pursued through
Down and Antrim to Colerains, where they made a stand and repulsed
Hamilton, who fell back for reinforcements.

James had now arrived in Dublin with his French
contingent. His road to England lay through Ulster, and the passage must
be forced, and with this end in view he set his combined army in motion at
once for the doomed province.

At the River Bann, between Antrim and Derry, the
Jacobins encountered the first organized line of the Ulstermen's defense.
It was not a strong position; it was too long and too thin. Numerous fords
extending over thirty miles were guarded by small detachments beyond
supporting distance of each other, and no adequate reserves in sight. An
ordinary American general would have gobbled up these courageous
battalions as easily as an old woman can pick up chips, but fortunately
neither side had a monopoly of dense military stupidity and no great
catastrophe ensued. To Sir John McGill was assigned the defense at Kilrea,
but the line was forced and a crossing effected by the enemy at Port
Glenone, where Capt. James McGill, a gallant young officer, was slain.

The line of defense along the River Bann being broken,
the Ulster forces retired to the walled city of Londonderry and prepared
to withstand a siege.

The details of the world-renowned siege of Londonderry
do not require reproduction here further than to say that every county in
Ulster was represented among the defenders and not a British soldier
appeared to swell the ranks of the men who had placed themselves as a
living barrier between William of Orange and his enemies. This sore
neglect and inefficiency of support did not improve the mistrust of the
Ulstermen in William and Mary, and went far to justify those of the
Protestant faith who preferred casting their lot with their kinsmen the
Irish to trusting to their hereditary foe the German Prince. There were
such Ulstermen, and they were not far from being right, and among them
were men bearing our own name.

Capt. Hugh MacGill was prominent in the city counsels
and military defense of Londonderry, and no doubt there were others,
perhaps many, but we have notice that there were Protestant McGills who
would not support the Dutchman and who were enrolled in the ranks of the
Irish army. Col. Carmack O'Neill, commanding a regiment in the Irish army,
was a Protestant, and in his line were two officers supposed to be of the
same faith, Lieut. Carmac McGill and Ensign Neill McGill. Colonel O'Neill
is prominent in history-was highly connected with the Irish nobility of
the time, and it would seem from the names that very friendly relations
existed between the O'Neills and the McGills. Now we see in these people
ranged on the side of the Irish, men who put not their trust in Dutch
Princes-who contemned not the blood of their race and were willing for the
time being to submerge religion under righteousness and stand by their
brother Celts, let the issue be what it may; and though they went down in
defeat we must not question their motives or detract from their immortal
honor.

The victory at Londonderry belonged to the Ulstermen ;
there were no others there to share in the laurels, and it was an
achievement of momentous importance to Europe and to the whole civilized
world; for it signalized the supremacy of the Protestant faith in every
English-speaking nation on the face of the earth.

The overthrow of James at the Boyne the following year
was a natural sequence to the heroic defense at Londonderry, and left
William and Mary free to root out the Scotch Irish from Ulster. Through
their thrift they had accumulated sufficient wealth to make it an object
to despoil them and the Dutch instincts led out strongly in that
direction. No sooner were the Irish subdued than the Established Church
assumed high prerogatives and all fellowship with the Presbyterians was at
an end.

They were all right while they were killing off the
Irish-they fraternized and worshipped in the same Cathedral in Derry-but
now, relieved from fear of the shillalah, the High Church regarded the
Presbyterians as undesirable citizens and acted accordingly. The men who
saved Derry were left amid the wreck of their fortunes without recognition
or reward by the Crown, and all the oppressions that had been inflicted
upon the Irish Catholics, with the approval of the Scot, were now turned
full tide upon the Scotch Irish Presbyterians of Ulster.

They were in a pretty fix. They had justly earned the
bitter hatred of their racial brethren -the Irish. They had voluntarily
expatriated themselves when they removed beyond the jurisdiction of
Scotland, and now the paw of the British Lion was upon them with merciless
tread, and they were prostrate and bleeding in the land they had reclaimed
and beautified.

In one hundred years the Scotch Presbyterians had
founded a race-the Scotch-Irish race-conceived in sin-nurtured and matured
in fratricidal blood-and now they were reaping their reward in bitter
humiliation and distress. All the good they had done for England in the
subjugation of the Irish went for naught and the day of retribution was at
hand. The old Scot should have known better than to trust to perfidious
Albion. The experience of ages told him better, but he was crafty,
cunning, covetous and sly, and would venture very the margin of hell for
two-pence, but now in the day of his maturity he became wise and fled to
America.

The immigration to our shores from 1700 to 1775 was
very great and mostly of the right kind. The Puritans had set up their
Ebinezer at Plymouth Rock, and were calling for their liberty-loving
friends across the sea to come hither. The Scotch and Irish poured into
Philadelphia and Baltimore at the rate of twelve thousand per annum, and
pushed West and South and fortified in their log cabins against Indian
depredation and British aggression. Blood stained from St. Bartholomew
came the Huguenot and entered by more Southern ports.

The mills of God were grinding; right, left and center
these incoming hordes of king-haters unconsciously took their proper
positions in the line of battle, and when the storm did come our old
forbears were equal to the emergency.

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